Chapter Ninety-Four: A Romantic Encounter
Lin Yu and Yao Fangfang haven't been in contact for a long time, but they always manage to skip the small talk and get straight to the point.
The phone was answered after only two rings, the background unusually quiet, unlike her usual chaotic demeanor when she was with the children. "Fangfang?"
"What? You're not at work during the day, and you still have the leisure to bother me!" Yao Fangfang's voice carried a lazy smile, warming Lin Yu's cold heart over the phone.
“Let’s go on a trip, Fangfang,” Lin Yu blurted out without any preamble.
There was only a brief silence on the other end of the phone. "When?" Yao Fangfang tacitly refrained from asking why.
"tomorrow!"
......
With the long holiday approaching, airfares to Sanya were terrifyingly high. Lin Yu spoke nonchalantly, but when it came to actually paying, he was in excruciating pain.
But when he thought of the boastful words he had made just fifteen minutes earlier, and the severance pay that might soon arrive in his account, Lin Yu hesitated for a few seconds before gritting his teeth, closing his eyes, and pressing the payment confirmation button.
When she was with Jiang Chuan, she never had to worry about these trivial matters. Plane tickets were always booked in advance, hotels always had terraces she liked, and even the itinerary was clearly marked on sticky notes.
Now she has to handle everything herself. When booking tickets, she has to switch between three apps to compare prices. When choosing a hotel, she has to carefully check reviews. She also has to repeatedly confirm the location of the airport transfer with the driver. This kind of withdrawal is a bit hard for her to get used to.
But Lin Yu knew that no one could depend on another person forever. Before she met Jiang Chuan, she had accomplished all these things independently. She could not allow herself to continue to indulge in his false tenderness.
After booking her flight and hotel, she sent a leave request to her boss without any hesitation, regardless of whether the boss approved it or not. She then forwarded the flight information to Yao Fangfang and arranged a meeting time with her.
As soon as it was time to leave work, she shut down her computer, grabbed her bag, and left. She got home early, humming a tune as she began packing, a long-lost feeling of joy welling up inside her.
......
Lin Yu's flight landed at Sanya Airport the following day at noon. Through the porthole, the blazing sunlight made her squint slightly.
Yao Fangfang would arrive two hours later. The two had agreed early on to meet at the hotel and then go out for dinner together.
She had a free afternoon, so she leisurely dragged her suitcase out of the airport, hailed a taxi, told them her hotel name, and sat in the back.
Lin Yu rolled down the car window halfway, and a wave of heat mixed with the sea breeze rushed in. She pressed her face against the window, watching the coconut grove rushing past, feeling the unique freedom and comfort of this moment.
Hotel rooms were in short supply due to the approaching holiday. However, Yao Fangfang and Zhang Yunzhou were frequent guests, and Lin Yu, benefiting from their VIP status, easily secured a room from the hotel.
The two of them booked a basic room and then used up all their points to upgrade it to a presidential suite, which also included free drinks at the bar all day.
After checking in, Lin Yu followed the hotel manager to her reserved room, quickly unpacked her luggage, changed into a flowing bohemian-style long dress, and plunged into the hotel's soft, pressure-free bed, scrolling through her phone.
The afternoon sun streamed in through the floor-to-ceiling windows of the panoramic terrace. She turned over and noticed a striking red helicopter parked on the beach not far away.
This resort hotel boasts an impressive size, and guests can even take a boat trip directly from the hotel's private marina.
She suddenly remembered the infinity pool, water park, and underwater restaurant that the receptionist had mentioned when introducing the hotel. Since she still had some time before meeting Yao Fangfang, instead of staying in her room scrolling through her phone, she might as well go check them out first.
As soon as the thought crossed her mind, she got out of bed, grabbed the room key and her phone from the bedside table, and headed for the door.
Wearing a wide-brimmed straw hat, she walked through the bright, high-ceilinged lobby and strolled along the tree-lined path toward the private beach. A blond, blue-eyed foreign boy approached her; he was young, with freckles dotting his fair face.
He passed Lin Yu, then turned back, laughing heartily as he greeted him. "Hi! You Korean?"
Lin Yu paused for a few seconds before realizing he was being addressed. "No, Chinese!"
"Really?" The boy exaggeratedly raised his hands, ran them through his fluffy blonde curls, and exclaimed with wide eyes. "You look so cute, so pretty!"
Lin Yu slightly raised an eyebrow, his mood somewhat complicated.
While she was secretly pleased to be complimented on her appearance, she felt uncomfortable because the other person subconsciously assumed she was Korean. She felt it was her responsibility to correct his stereotype.
Lin Yu racked his brains to recall the English vocabulary he had gradually forgotten since the college entrance examination, wishing he could immediately call Lin Min and ask her to teleport here to help him.
"Oh really," she stammered for a moment before finally managing to utter her words. She raised her chin, a hint of playful confidence in her voice, and said, "Exactly, we're uniquely untranslatable."
The boy was stunned for a moment, then realized what she meant, and burst into laughter, apologizing repeatedly for his offense.
Lin Yu waved her hand to indicate she didn't care and turned to continue walking towards the beach. After taking only a few steps, she noticed the boy was still following behind. She looked around warily. "Anything wrong?"
“I wanted to contact the travel agency, but I got completely lost, so…” The boy scratched his head, took out his phone, and showed her the location his friend had sent him.
Lin Yu glanced over and realized it was the same shop she had passed on her way here. "E on..." she waved casually. "I'll show you the way."
The two walked and talked along the way, and Lin Yu managed to keep up, soon dropping him off at his destination.
The boy met up with his two friends at the entrance of the travel agency. The three of them standing together looked like a meticulously composed advertisement, which made Lin Yu take a second look.
Their identical honey-colored skin glowed healthily in the sunlight, and their blonde hair and blue eyes made them look like the protagonists of a teen movie.
Especially the girl standing in the middle, her voluptuous figure wrapped in a floral bikini, looked just like a swimsuit model who had stepped off a magazine cover.
"Hi!" Lin Yu greeted them politely and prepared to leave.
The boy suddenly called out to her, speaking in heavily accented English, "We're going snorkeling, six people in one group. Do you want to?"
What is snorkeling? Lin Yu was completely baffled.
Seeing her confused expression, the boy immediately started gesturing wildly, his strong arms drawing wave-like arcs in the air, and then pointing to the colorful gear on the beach.
Lin Yu then realized that they had come here to snorkel. Being new to the area and unfamiliar with the environment, they planned to experience it with a tour group first.
She smiled and declined, saying she would wait for her friend there. The group didn't insist and walked towards the coastline with their fluorescent gear bags on their backs.
The flight was delayed, so Lin Yu ordered Hainan rice noodles and a refreshing dessert, sitting in his hotel room to slowly eat and pass the time. After finishing his meal, he took a shower before finally waiting for Yao Fangfang, who looked travel-worn.
She seemed to have changed little since the last time we parted, except that she was a bit thinner and her hair had grown to shoulder length, tied up in a high bun with a headband, but she was still breathtakingly beautiful.
Before Lin Yu could even speak, she pounced on her, clinging to her body and pinching her cheeks while apologizing a hundred times. Lin Yu was tickled by her antics and laughed, begging for mercy. Playfully, they tumbled together into the fluffy bedding.
As the city lights began to twinkle, the two rested briefly before finding a seafood stall near the hotel for dinner.
"How can you come to Hainan and not eat seafood?" Yao Fangfang said, her eyes sparkling under the night light.
As a regular here, she skillfully led Lin Yu through the bustling night market, heading straight to the shop she and Zhang Yunzhou frequented.
Yao Fangfang bent down and watched the vendor scoop the goods out of the pool. She took the fresh beer from the owner and, together with Lin Yu, dragged two red plastic chairs to a round table covered with a plastic sheet and sat down.
Before long, the golden and crispy salt and pepper mantis shrimp and the meaty Hele crab, brimming with roe, were served steaming hot.
Lin Yu held a freshly opened chilled coconut, watching Yao Fangfang skillfully break open the crab shell, golden crab oil dripping from her delicate fingertips onto the plate.
She took a large, satisfying sip, the sweet coconut juice sliding down her throat, making her feel completely refreshed. She couldn't help but squint her eyes and sigh, thinking she must have been from Sanya in her past life.
Yao Fangfang didn't take it to heart, her hands continuing to work as she scooped the peeled crab meat onto Lin Yu's plate. "Come on, you've said before that you're from Shanxi, Yunnan, and Sichuan."
To put it bluntly, you're just a glutton.
Yao Fangfang, without makeup, had her fair skin glowing rosy in the Sanya heat. Her slender fingers deftly peeled shrimp shells as she looked directly at Lin Yu. "Speak!"
"What did you say?" Lin Yu had originally wanted to remain reserved for a couple more rounds, but he hadn't expected her to be so direct.
"Speak quickly while I'm still lucid," Yao Fangfang said, tapping the beer mug on the table with her fingertips. "Otherwise, I'll be giving you all the stupid advice you need!"
Lin Yu laughed, no longer being coy, and poured out the details of the breakup and layoffs. When she got emotional, she grabbed a mantis shrimp and stuffed it into her mouth, shell and all, only to be pricked and burst into tears.
After listening, Yao Fangfang pondered for a moment and said, "It might not be as you think."
Although she had never met Jiang Chuan, her intuition told her that if he really had something going on with the other woman, then the "other woman" wouldn't have waited until they broke up to come knocking on their door; it was clearly a desperate act.
Lin Yu knew she was referring to the Jiang Chuan incident, and shrugged. "Whatever, do we have to go through the whole 'whoever makes the claim bears the burden of proof' thing? He doesn't want to talk about it, and I'm too lazy to ask."
"Didn't you also fail to explain things clearly to Chen Guang?" Yao Fangfang retorted.
“In that situation…” Lin Yu sighed, “I always felt that opening my mouth would be incredibly rude, and it would make me feel inferior for no reason.”
"You think it's not worth it?"
Lin Yu thought about it carefully. "It's not a question of whether it's worth it or not, it's just that I don't understand how a person's personality can be so divided. I'm even a little afraid of him."
“Human nature is inherently complex, and love has no fixed template.” Yao Fangfang swirled the ice in her glass and smiled. “And you two are both stubborn, so you were bound to go through this sooner or later.”
She paused. "But what Chen Guang did was really unethical. Should we have Zhang Yunzhou talk to him later?"
"Forget it, whether it was fair or not is in the past." Lin Yu looked at the dark sea in the distance. "I also bear some responsibility for this. I could have refused his move. After all, it takes two to tango."
"Do you still have any lingering feelings for him?"
"You know me..." Lin Yu hesitated for no apparent reason. "I always look forward. I can't bring myself to go back to an old flame; I don't have that kind of backbone."
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